Promoting Access to Science Careers: Training Faculty to Teach Professional Development and Research Ethics

In the United States, graduate programs in the biomedical sciences are designed to provide individuals with the training necessary to pursue an independent career in research. The curriculum typically involves a combination of coursework, in which students obtain depth and breadth in the subject matter of their discipline, as well as extensive practical experience planning, conducting, and analyzing original research. However, in order for individuals to develop into successful professionals, there is an additional set of abilities they need to cultivate: they must develop a set of general professional skills, including the ability to publish their work, give research seminars and other types of oral presentations, obtain employment and secure funding, balance multiple responsibilities, and behave responsibly. Traditionally this information has been transmitted primarily through interactions between a student and their advisor or mentor. However, this seems inefficient, at best, and it places a disproportionate burden on women, minorities, and first-generation professionals, who often have less access to mentoring than their male counterparts. Since 1995, the Survival Skills and Ethics Program at the University of Pittsburgh has offered an annual conference designed to prepare faculty to implement courses on these essential skills. A follow-up survey of participants (1995-2003) was conducted in 2004; the aims were to determine what instruction had been implemented, ascertain the barriers to implementation, and examine how much participants felt the conference contributed to their abilities to provide the training. The instruction implemented varied widely in terms of the duration and the number of students taught; on average, participants provided 37 hr of instruction to 87 students annually. Finding time to devote to teaching was, by far, the greatest barrier to participants implementing courses in professional skills and ethics. Most participants felt that the conference significantly enhanced their ability to provide such instruction. In sum, these data indicate that this trainer-of-trainers program was an effective mechanism for disseminating a curriculum designed to promote the socialization of students to the practice of science. These results have implications for optimizing trainer-of-trainer programs and reducing barriers to the implementation of instruction in professional development and the responsible conduct of research

Teaching responsible conduct responsibly.

The advancement of science requires trust – trust in the literature, in our collaborators, in the data we are handed, and most of all in ourselves. Policies issued by U.S. federal funding agencies (e.g., the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation) have been valuable in prompting institutions to initiate formal mechanisms for providing instruction in the responsible conduct of research (RCR). However, the guidelines vary greatly in scope, detail, and the types of individuals to which they apply. Unfortunately, at many institutions, the provision of RCR instruction has become a bureaucratic exercise aimed at fulfilling a regulatory requirement, instead of an activity optimized for promoting a climate of integrity. We argue that for RCR instruction to be effective it should (1) be provided to everyone involved in the research enterprise, be they students, trainees, faculty, or staff, (2) be infused throughout one’s time at an institution. For graduate students, that would include from orientation to thesis completion, including integration into all “core classes” within their discipline, as well as into discussions at research group meetings. (3) We also advocate that the bulk of the instruction should be provided primarily by active researchers who know the issues and have relevance to, and credibly with, those being taught, and (4) that the instruction actively engages the learners. Not only will we be providing RCR instruction in a much more optimized manner, such an approach also emphasizes through our actions, not just in words, that behaving responsibly is an essential skill for researchers

Toward a Climate of Scientific Integrity

A review of the new edition of Macrina's "Scientific integrity: Text and cases in responsible conduct of research" highlights the continuing need for teaching ethical guidelines to young researchers

Assessing the association between pre-course metrics of student preparation and student performance in introductory statistics: Results from early data on simulation-based inference vs. nonsimulation based inference

The recent simulation-based inference (SBI) movement in algebra-based introductory statistics courses (Stat 101) has provided preliminary evidence of improved student conceptual understanding and retention. However, little is known about whether these positive effects are preferentially distributed across types of students entering the course. We consider how two metrics of Stat 101 student preparation (pre-course performance on concept inventory and math ACT score) may or may not be associated with end of course student performance on conceptual inventories. Students across all preparation levels tended to show improvement in Stat 101, but more improvement was observed across all student preparation levels in early versions of a SBI course. Furthermore, students' gains tended to be similar regardless of whether students entered the course with more preparation or less. Recent data on a sample of students using a current version of an SBI course showed similar results, though direct comparison with non-SBI students was not possible. Overall, our analysis provides additional evidence that SBI curricula are effective at improving students' conceptual understanding of statistical ideas post-course regardless student preparation. Further work is needed to better understand nuances of student improvement based on other student demographics, prior coursework, as well as instructor and institutional variables.Comment: 16 page

Introductory comments for the scientific ethics theme.

In this letter, the three Guest Editors for JMBE's first-ever themed section introduce the topic of scientific ethics and decribe the organization of essays within the special section.\u

Judges' and District Attorneys' Perceptions of Competency to Stand Trial Evaluations in Oklahoma

The purpose of this study was to examine Oklahoma judges' and district attorneys' perceptions of competency to stand trial evaluations. Participants in this study were 165 judges and district attorneys from all counties in the state of Oklahoma. More specifically, 75 judges and 90 district attorneys from the state of Oklahoma participated in this study. Each participant completed a survey which was mailed to them on Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences letterhead, with a self-addressed stamped envelope included to facilitate a return response. Descriptive statistics (including percentages, means, and standard deviations) were used to test the hypotheses. Similar to the results found by Graham (2007), there was no strong preference for setting (Oklahoma Forensic Center v. local) to perform competency to stand trial evaluations. However, when the two legal professionals were separated and compared, judges showed a preference for local evaluations, and district attorneys showed a preference for evaluations completed at OFC. Despite preferring their evaluations to be done locally, judges rated evaluations completed at OFC higher overall than those evaluations completed locally. Judges and district attorneys' believed the quality of evaluations has remained the same over the past 3 years for both local and OFC evaluations. There showed to be a strong preference for psychiatrists and doctoral level psychologists over social workers and other licensed mental health professionals to complete evaluations. Judges and DA's continue to perceive competency reports are lacking in information necessary to effectively determine a defendant's competency.Department of Psycholog

Differential near phoria measurements between standard and experimental targets

Near dissociated phoria measurements are effected by a variety of variables including accommodation, testing conditions, and procedures. Several studies have compared various techniques and repeatability of near phoria measurements. However, previous studies have not assessed target manipulation to determine how the phorias may be affected. The intention of this study was to evaluate if a change in card design has any influence on the outcome of near dissociated phoria measurements. Forty volunteers between the ages of 20 and 40 years were used to assess near point phorias using the von Graefe method. Phorias were measured with a standard near point card and an experimental near point card which eliminated most white space on the card. Two near phoria measurements per card per subject were performed independently by three examiners. The results showed a mean near phoria using the standard card was 3.730A exophoric and the mean phoria using the experimental card was 4.607A exophoric. Based on these values alone a statistical difference does exist. However, when interexaminer variability was taken into account a statistical difference does not exist between the standard and experimental near phoria targets. This was due to the large range of measurements between examiners

CITY, BODY AND PERFORMANCE ART IN THE AMERICAS: subjectivities as confrontation zones

This article is a reflection on the relationship between city, body and performance from the 8th Meeting of the Hemispheric Institute. The text seeks to, at first, make a panorama of the multiple forms of demonstrations, performances and discussions to focus, on the next moment, in the presence of women and think about the prospects they are inscribed in politics of embodyment.O presente artigo é uma reflexão sobre as relações entre cidade, corpo e performance, a partir do 8º Encontro do Instituto Hemisférico. O texto busca, inicialmente, fazer um panorama das múltiplas formas de manifestações, performances, instalações e debates oferecidos no encontro, para focar, no momento seguinte, na presença das mulheres e pensar sobre as perspectivas em que elas se inscrevem na política das corporeidades

Visualizing Objects, Places, and Spaces: A Digital Project Handbook

Digital humanities are rich with publications, workshops, guides, and resource lists that introduce the field’s concepts and methods. As digital humanities have grown, trainings and materials for experienced practitioners have become prominent. Yet, as the authors have observed through their involvement with the National Humanities Center’s Summer Institute on Objects, Places, and the Digital Humanities, needs remain for resources that introduce anyone interested in creating a dh project to core methodological considerations and knowledge necessary to productively choose platforms and approaches that fit their research goals. This gap is especially apparent in fields dealing with visual materials and physical spaces, such as digital art history, where infrastructure for visual technologies varies. Visualizing Objects, Places, and Spaces: A Digital Project Handbook (https://handbook.pubpub.org) is designed to address that gap. This poster outlines the Handbook’s structure, reflects on the project’s own development process, and shares next steps. This poster was presented at the Digital Humanities 2020 virtual conference. (https://hcommons.org/groups/dh2020

Working Students’ Perceptions of Paying for College: Understanding the Connections between Financial Aid and Work

For many students at urban commuter colleges, the process of financial aid is unknown or mysterious; and so they work—often many hours a week—to pay expenses that financial aid might have covered. Missteps, unforeseen events, and limited resources can have severe consequences for the academic progress of these students. The broader study, of which this paper is a part, represents an effort to explore and describe students’ college-going, working, family responsibilities, and academic success at three commuter institutions in a metropolitan region in the Midwest. The encompassing project aims to introduce new qualitative data and situated description into the study of these phenomena. In this article, we explore students’ views and experiences with financial aid, centering on the research question: How do students describe and conceptualize financial aid policy